Cursed Gift
by Xeenith
Summary: Ranma is a martial arts genius, his ability to learn and adapt new techniques is unbelievable... but if it was more than just an ability ? Xmen crossover. NO you don't dream : finally a real update
1. realization

Cursed Gift

* * *

" " are speaking

' are quotes

[ ] are thoughts

{ } are telepathic communications

* * are sounds

### are flashbacks

* * *

Prologue : realization

* * *

Once again, Ranma's day was a disaster. Some things never change, and so his fiancées all went down on him, all at the same time while we are at it, and Ranma was hard pressed to escape being changed into a doormat in the following fight between the girls.

His respite was short since where Shampoo goes, Mousse will follow. But without his glasses, the blind Amazon was easy to lose... It was counting without Kuno and his never ending samurai lunacy.

All in all, a normal day for Ranma. And even if all this was more annoying than anything else, the true menace of these daily events was on the emotional level.

[When will they understand? They are so pathetic... and I'm so tired of all this crap. I don't know how much I can take this circus that's my life.]

Ranma was sitting cross-legged on the dojo's roof, meditating to relax after his day. He wore this trademark black sweater and his tank top, his red chinese shirt laying on the tiles near him, so  
that he felt the cool wind refresh his mind as it did to his body.

For the last few months, Ranma had felt something change deep inside. Sure, his gift of improvisation allowed him to get a pretty high level in martial arts at his young age, but genius only couldn't help to beat foes like Herb or Saffron.

A Dragon prince and a Phoenix god. No "normal" human could possibly beat beings like them with unnatural abilities.

To learn the 'Hiryu Shoten Ha' without knowing the last move was a thing, but to revise a technique that powerful in the middle of a fight and master it on the first try? His fight with Herb was the first time when it began to 'click' in Ranma's mind and he then slowly started to open his eyes to the truth.

His gift to adapt to his opponent was way too much developed, it was unreal. But he didn't want... no, he COULDN'T believe it, for it'd mean that in all his fights, he had 'cheated' thanks to his gift.

The fight against Saffron in itself wasn't the confirmation Ranma thought it'd be... nope, not the fight itself. The following days on the other hand...

[How can I still pretend to be a martial arts expert when my own body can develop the most powerful techniques if I badly need them?] the pigtailed boy lamented, while having a few small fireballs dancing over his right hand's palm.

[Even the powers of a phoenix god are at my disposal, and I'm not even mentioning the physical perks... this thing my body does even copied Saffron's wings! Am I only even human?] he wondered, his face distorted by his anger while he 'sprouted' wings from his back, appearing seemingly by magic, fitting on the large holes on the sides of his tank top without damaging the cloth.

He studied one more time the magnificent feathers, they were so white and so pure... more angel-like than Saffron's bird-like wings.

[Or should I ask, have I even been human? Where did this gift came from?] Ranma tried without much result to get his cool back, but his exasperation, and his tiredness from the bad day's stress, was making it a difficult task.

{I think I may be able to answer those questions of yours.} came from nowhere, like someone said that while standing only a few feet from him,

"Hu?" was all that Ranma could say, totally caught off guard.

{I'm sorry if I surprised you that much, it was not my intention. I'm talking directly into your mind. It's my own gift, like you have yours.} explained the mental voice.

"There are more people with gifts like mine?" asked Ranma, exited to know more about himself.

{Exactly. I'm the owner of a school that is specially made for people like us, so they can be helped to better control their gifts. Some could be dangerous, for themselves as much as bystanders, if they didn't control their abilities.}

"Yeah, I can imagine the damage... hu, I know you can hear me and I hear you in my mind but... where are you exactly? I'd like to talk to you face to face." Ranma explained to the voice.

{I'm not that far actually, I'm in front of your home's gates with some student of mine, but I wanted to make you know who we were before actually meeting, so you knew we weren't here to cause you any trouble.}

"Ah... someone who's not out for my blood? That'd be a first... I'll come to get you guys, I just need to... hide back my wings and I'll be there." Told them before jumping down the dojo's roof to go meet the ones who could become his first true friends.


	2. I'm Saotome Ranma, sorry about this!

Cursed Gift

* * *

" " are speaking

' ' are quotes

[ ] are thoughts

{ } are telepathic communications

* * are sounds

### are flashbacks

* * *

Author's notes : heya young fellas, not only am I not dead but I finally solve the problem I had with writing fanfics for those last few years. I originally wrote the prologue of Cursed Gift to get that scene out of my head, like many others authors do, but I simply couldn't plan anything to go after that. On the other hand I had lots planned for my main story Reincarnations.

Problem solved a little bit earlier this month, I chose to somehow fuse the two, including Cursed Gift as the first story of the Reincarnation plot I have prepared for more than 10 years now. It'll make some changes in some parts here and there, and Ranma will be a little different since he went through the canon manga instead of what I had planned.

This also mean I must plan some plot for Cursed Gift asap since I still don't have much, but the simple possibility to finally write the next arcs is pressing me to get some real work done. As the for universe I plan to use, since I asked you guys in the previous chapter 2, I'll be making my own spin with a little bit of the golden age comics, the movie and the evolution anime all mixed up :p.

On the other hands, those last weeks had been really interesting in term of ideas so I am making a forum ( just add forum/Xeeniths_vault/96867/ after the base / url) to talk about those news ideas, and probably post a few poll here and there when I'm not sure which variant to use.

And now, finally for some of you, on to the story!

PS : I'm **still** French and this is my second language so please be gentle with me as I'm working my spell checker to death and rereading everything thrice to try and get all errors I can detect.

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Chapter 2 : I'm Saotome Ranma, sorry about this!

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Guests.

This lone word shouldn't have much anxiety linked to it. But when you are living at the Tendo Dojo in Nerima, it can take a whole new meaning. Even more so if your name is Saotome Ranma. Fortunately for once he was quite happy to meet new peoples and greet them. He was so very nearly flying through the house he had to check one more time if his wings were really hidden away.

Exiting the house, he then ran the short distance separating him from the big wooden doors of the propriety and slowly pushed them open, revealing a few peoples seemingly waiting for him. They were. Leading the group of three was an aging man with no hair at all, neatly dressed but sitting in some sort of modernized wheelchair. He was flanked by two other guys, one about the same size as Ranma but much more wide in muscle mass, gruff hairs, a tank top that had to have been white someday, jeans and boots. The last one had strange red glasses, deep blue shirt, jeans and running shoes.

"Hello young man, you would be Ranma if I am right, aren't you? Would you have some time to talk to me and my friends, please?" asked the bald man and Ranma could recognize the voice he heard in his head only a few minutes ago.

"Hello to you too and hell yeah, I have so much to ask, please follow me. I'm Ranma by the way!" he greeted them, mentioning them with his hand to enter the residence.

"Thank you Ranma, I am Professor Xavier and those gentlemen are my student Scott Summer and one of my school trainers Logan." The futuristic wheelchair elevated itself a few inches and started to follow the pigtailed teen, Scott and Logan nodding at their name calls and following their mentor.

"Here this is our dojo, we'll have some privacy while we talk, I don't really want the others to annoy me fight now. I can't even get a few hours of peace without having someone trying to make my life hell" Ranma explained to the American trio, his mood darkening some. He turned to face the professor. "So how did you find me? With your mental trick thingy?"

Scott and Logan looked at each other, Scott with a raised eyebrow and mouthing "Thingy?" to Logan while the gruff man was smiling back. [I think I like the kid already, eh!]

"In a crude way, yes, I can use my mental abilities to detect others mutants, people like us with powers outside of the norm. I have a machine at the school named Cerebro that can help me increase my abilities to detect someone anywhere on the planet."

Ranma's eyes opened to form large circles.

"Whole planet? Whoa, that's some serious stuff!" exclaimed Ranma, he then asked, looking at his others two guests, "and you, what can you do?"

"I heal very fast." Logan stated simply. "And he shoots laser beams from his eyes, hence the special glasses, but he doesn't speak Japanese." He added, waving lazily his hand toward Scott.

"Indeed, Scott cannot control whether his eyes fire his optic beams or not, and without those glasses he wouldn't be able to open his eyes without destroying anything or anyone he looks at." Added the prof.

"No control he? That sucks, trust me I know how it is." Ranma said looking at Scott with an understanding look. "So, what do you know about those abilities like mines?"

"They are mostly different for each person, even if some people have similar powers. I have to admit to you that I unwillingly heard a little about your internal monologue just before I contacted you mentally, so if I am to understand your own abilities would lie toward adapting to a situation, and the harsher the situation, the harder your ability would work toward you surpassing it?" the professor explained to Ranma, the young martial artist had to blink a couple time while the words processed in his mind, not used ear someone talk such precise language.

"Yeah, that sound about right, or maybe it's just becoming more powerful with time, or just the fights that became more and more dangerous?" Ranma shrugged his shoulders, not knowing the answer. "I've been trained in martial arts since before I could even walk, I'm used to know several dangerous moves. Even more since I moved back to Japan two years ago, with all the Ki based attacks I had to learn just to win the next fight and the next…" he was interrupted by Logan whose eyes just enlarged quite a bit.

"Wait, Ki based attacks? You're not even twenty and you know some of those already?" in his long life and despite his memory problems, Logan had known quite a lot of extreme level martial artists. Like Ironfist but his abilities lied in the mysticism, or Psylocke who used her psy abilities in similar ways. "Care to show us some of those moves?"

"Well, I'm not gonna destroy the dojo since most of my moves are bordering on the lethal side, for the surrounding if not the opponent, but here…." Ranma cupped his hands in front of him, his face taking a focused look. A few seconds later a small light started to shine in the middle of his palms, gathering in a small sphere of blue light, growing to the size of a basketball. "Proof enough for you, pal?" Ranma asked, an arrogant smirk painted on his face.

The American mutants were indeed impressed by the show.

"Ranma, are you sure that you're now using your 'gift' to form this energy?" the professor asked him.

"Nah, I know at least three or four people that could do this, and quite a few more that only need a little more focus to get to this. This is just Ki, internal life energy that everybody has, you only need the training and focus to manipulate it like this." Ranma let the ki sphere dissipate but didn't change his posture. Instead something else manifested where the blue light was a few seconds ago. A small spark, growing a little to become a little flame, gathering in his hands like a campfire until it got to the same basketball size his previous demonstration had been.

"Now this on the other hand I blame on those abilities. I only know one guy that could form fire like that and he was called a phoenix god by his people. He was the same guy I got those too." Again he extended his now appendage from his back, the elegant white wings appearing from his back, letting a few loose plums dance in the air around him. "What if my next opponent is part fish? I don't wanna start looking like one, I NEED to control this, already have enough trouble with my curse and I sooo don't need some power or ability to change me even more!"

That declaration, added to his new appearance was the start of a long discussion, his mention of a 'phoenix' was a big alert in the mind of the X-men, still remembering quite well the events on the moon leading to the death of their friend and/or lover Jean Grey under the influence of the celestial being Phoenix, or more accurately Dark Phoenix at the time. Until the real Jean Grey was retrieved by the Fantastic Four in Manhattan's Bay. It took some time and many explanations from Ranma and some mental pictures taken my Prof X until they could breathe more easily knowing that THAT name was just a damn coincidence. They didn't want to meet the damn firebird ever again if possible.

Ranma had to explain what he had called a cursed and showed them the trigger twice. He also explained some of the different magics items and cursed he had been in contact with : the now dispelled Dragon Hair soup, the battle doji that Akane had donned or the locking ladle and unlocking kettle.

Scott followed all this with a telepathic link made with the professor, he still couldn't talk but at least he understood everything that was said, but he wanted to doubt every word said by Ranma, even with the showing of the ki, fire, wings and curse. His respect for the pigtailed martial artist grew at each new obstacle that was narrated. [how did the guy stay sane with everything that had been thrown his way? Just the girl curse was enough for any people to turn their head backward.]

"Well Ranma, I can tell that all those events took their toll on your mind. What would you say to take some time off and come study at my school? You would have all the help available to train your new abilities, and understand exactly how your mutant power works."

"You know, a few months ago, all my obligations would have made me say no. But enough is enough, if I stay like this I might make a mistake at the wrong time and I don't wanna kill someone for a stupid reason." Ranma was shaking slowly his head, cursing at the impossible situation all his rivals, both those after his affection and his life, had put him in a couple years, all because he didn't want to tarnish his own honor or bloody his hands.

"You made the right choice, bub. It's hard to take life altering decisions like that but we can help you, and I'm sure with all your martial arts training you'll be able to help us too." Logan told to Ranma, putting his hand in the young man's shoulder.

"Okay, wait for me a few minutes, I always have a pack ready, I just need a couple more things and to leave a note or something. Just lucky I was alone at home or it would have been whole war to get me out of here in one piece."

* * *

Kasumi was the first to come back home to the Tendo residence, having needed to make a few purchases for the evening meal. She was not surprised to see the house closed, her sisters were out with friends or cronies often enough, and the fathers were either maxing out their bar tabs or concocting a new plan to get Akane and Ranma married. Ranma had his own lot of problems and never had a regular schedule so who could tell with the young man.

It was only when passing through the main room on her way to the kitchen that she saw a letter on the low table, with 'to everyone' quickly written on it that she felt something had happened in her absence.

'Hey everyone, I was contacted by a school for expert martial artist and they want me to take a training trip there to swap a few moves. I'll see you soon. Ranma.'

"Oh my!"


End file.
